I just got home from a truly phenomenal concert – Liz Phair in a tiny venue playing plugged-in acoustic with only one other musician, an excellent guitarist who sang some harmonies.
She walked onstage, unannounced, sat down, kicked off her sandals, and started with “Polyester Bride.” She played a slew of stuff from Exile, a bunch from whitechocolate, and one or two songs from each of the others. The only song she didn’t sing that I was really hoping for was Perfect World, which seemed like a natural – ah well.
She did “Fuck and Run” for her finale, and “Flower” for the encore.
I was sitting 30 feet from her.
My face hurts from grinning with delight. My throat is sore from “woo-hooing” after every song.
I love Liz Phair, but I didn’t pick up her most recent album after it got a bunch of negative reviews. I’ve just heard lousy things about her recently, which bummed me out.
It’s nice to hear something positive about her! Sounds like a great concert.
I didn’t care much for the album that came out last year – two years ago? – but she played three or four songs from the one coming out in October (her reaction to – hold on – Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life), and I’m definitely going to be getting it.
Liz Phair’s last album is different, but I think it’s really good. Anyone who gave it a bad review is one of those tiny little pea-brain music critics (that you see everywhere, sadly) who cannot forgive an artist from doing something other than what made them famous in the first place. There’s no “Chopsticks” on Liz Phair, certainly, but there are a lot of great songs, most of which sound different but in mood are very much Liz Phair songs. So, assuming you’re not one of those pea-brains that can’t allow an artist to do anything other than what they did back in 1992 (and you’re not), you’ll like the album.
And even if she did sell out with her most recent album, at least it WORKED – “Why Can’t I?” was a sizable hit, appearing on more than one movie soundtrack. If you’re going to toss away your indie cred for a shot at the big time, the worst thing in the world that can happen is that the big time doesn’t want you, leaving you with no audience at all.
Well, I can’t speak for all critics, but I think a lot of the hatred for her self-titled album had nothing to do with her “changing her style” but more to do with “changing her style to something that was really, really shit.”
Serious music fans are all for artists evolving. In fact, artists who DON’T evolve are usually frowned upon. But Liz Phair’s self-titled record is viewed as a devolution in terms of style, creativity, and most importantly, substance, from that of her earlier works.
I’ve been a fan of Liz Phair since Exile in Guyville, but her last album didn’t speak to me at all. Not only did it de-emphasize her kickass guitar work, but she sounded less like someone expanding her musical chops and more like someone attempting to ape the talent-bereft “hottie, scantily-clad girl pop singers” that were all over the charts at the time of release.
She had a couple of hits that made it on a few movie soundtracks, but the album still sold very poorly, only moving 405,000 copies so far. That’s about where she was with her other albums.
Your point about total units sold is well taken. But not all soundtrack contributions are created equal. “Extraordinary” (from the Raising Helen soundtrack) and “Why Can’t I?” (from the 13 Going On 30, Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! and How To Deal soundtracks) were the kinds of songs that run over the movie trailers and in the commercials. Her previous soundtrack contributions were not, I don’t think, as important, serving more as filler. And those four movies are the highest-profile that she has contributed to (although High Fidelity was certainly no Super-8 student film project).
I don’t know. There’s plenty of disposable pop that I like, but I really wasn’t hot at all about her last album. It’s very bland. Sure, there’s plenty of hipper-than-thou scenesters that deride everything she’s done since Exile, but I think she’s had decent, if unexceptional, output through whitechocolatespaceegg. In fact, the uber-poppy “What Makes You Happy” off that album is one of my favorite Liz Phair tunes, period.
Now, she has no obligation to please the indie kids and has made a conscious decision to go Cheryl Crowe light (if there even can be such a description) on us. However, it just simply doesn’t work for me. Her newest work just sounds very hollow and soulless to me. I’ve heard a couple of the tracks off the new album, and all I can say is that I’m not anxious to hear anything more.
I respect her for putting out the music she wants to put out, and not simply churning out what’s “expected” of her. But I don’t feel her music is maturing. I don’t want her to put out another Exile. She can’t. That’s a snapshot of a time and place that cannot be reproduced. Nor should it. But I don’t feel her new albums have the passion that fired her first few records. They sound complacent to me, for lack of better word.